>Readers Sound off on Unions
You are mistakenly giving credit ton the unions for the efforts of individual laborers and services. No union deserves credit for any noble deeds after 911 or for building anything in the USA, the workers, contractors and municipal departments themselves deserve that credit. The USA was built by contractors and companies, whose employees may or may not have been union members.
The only things that unions can take for is perpetuating a culture of excessive entitlements, labor contract negotiations that continuously escalate the cost of doing business far beyond the rate of inflation and forcing union members to pay dues. so that union leaders can line their pockets and attempt to influence the political process. This is a culture that is rife with conflict, financial abuse and, frequently, criminal behavior.
Over the past 25 years, unions greed and short-sightedness has been primarily responsible for the loss of our industrial manufacturing base, the decline (and bankruptcy) of the US automotive industry, as well as the skyrocketing cost of education and municipal taxation, while the quality of service has generally declined across the country. This is a systemic macro-economic problem that has very little to do with the short-term cycle of layoffs and hiring during that period.
While unions served an important role 75-100 years ago, they have failed to evolve with the current employment landscape across this country and today are outdated concepts that serve as an economic and productivity impediment in most industries today.
